Inverted Mountains

Field recording based composition by Alëna Korolëva.
Recorded in marble quarries near Borba, Portugal, October 2022.

The Borba region of Portugal, known for its rich marble deposits, is dotted with over 400 pit mines, all but 50 are abandoned. In 2018, a massive collapse in one of the largest quarries claimed five lives in a landslide. The history of mining is etched into the landscape, visible in the deep scars left by extraction. Over time, these wounds have been reclaimed by nature as non-human species adapt to the ruins, turning them into homes.

Four years after the landslide, I found myself at the bottom of this quarry as the sun set. Above me, pigeons circled the lower levels, filling the air with the continuous whistle of wings, while starlings gathered near the mouth of the pit, 50 meters above. 

This colony of starlings had a few tunes they repeated again and again. The sounds reminded me of sirens and the beeping of excavation machinery from the nearby quarries. Masters of acoustic mimicry, the starlings took these simple melodies and created variations on the same notes, not just repeating but unfolding new songs, their own regional dialect.